Sepp Blatter says he was near death when hospitalized for stress-related problems this month.
The suspended FIFA president tells Swiss broadcaster RTS he was “between the angels singing and the devils' fire. But it was the angels which sang.”
Blatter says “happily I never lost consciousness” during the 48 hours when he was most ill.
Blatter did not specify his illness in interview extracts released ahead of a program being broadcast Wednesday. The French-language broadcaster says Blatter was treated in intensive care for several days.
Blatter is awaiting hearings at the FIFA ethics committee and Court of Arbitration for Sport over a $2 million FIFA payment to Michel Platini in 2011.
He says Platini is “an honest man” and “will be elected” FIFA president if he wins the case.